UK companies took Covid support funds needlessly, report finds
More than a quarter of UK companies that tapped taxpayer funds during the Covid-19 pandemic via a £1.14bn government-backed scheme could have raised similar finance by other means, according to an official report on Friday.
Evaluating the Future Fund’s performance, audit firm RSM also noted that about 36 per cent of shareholders said they would have invested in businesses that received capital even if then chancellor Rishi Sunak had not created the scheme.
The report’s findings signal how the pressure to ensure that companies could obtain funds in the early stages of the pandemic allowed some that may have not needed support most to benefit.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Daniel Thomas
